After spending nearly 20 years at Alfa Romeo, Enzo Ferrari abandoned Casa del Portello in 1939, due to strong contrasts with the new technical director Wifredo Ricart [1].

On that occasion Ferrari signed an agreement, which prevented him from undertaking any type of competitive activity with the Scuderia brand for 5 years [2]; but, thanks to the cash collected as liquidation by Alfa Romeo, he founded a new company in Modena on September 1, 1939, called Auto Avio Costruzioni.

With this mark Ferrari realized the following year, for the Mille Miglia, [3] a car, called Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 (or Tipo 815) [2].

The social object of the Auto Avio was the construction of grinders and parts of aircraft, but soon it also dedicated itself to the automotive sector.

From this house came two spyder cars, built with Fiat material; in fact both the chassis and the engine (an 8-cylinder in-line of 1946 cm³, derived from the Fiat 508C 1100) were from the Turin home.

The Touring body, of Milan, created the soft and sleek lines of the two two-seater, called Auto Avio 815, which, on April 28, 1940, began the I Grand Prix of Brescia (XIII edition of the Mille Miglia), with two steering wheel crews trained by Rangoni-Nardi and Ascari-Minozzi, cousin and former Alfa Romeo pilot; the latter dominated the sport category up to 1500 cm³, but had to retire due to a failure of the engine; Rangoni instead retired due to the transmission failure. Of the two cars, only one has been found and restored and it is the one that belonged to the great driver Alberto Ascari. The owner often exhibits it at the MEF (Casa Museo Enzo Ferrari) in Modena

The application of the Ferrari name, in conjunction with the trademark, took place again in 1943, coinciding with the transfer of the activities to the new Maranello plants.

However, the name Auto Avio Costruzioni remained active until 1957, when it changed to Auto Costruzioni Ferrari [4] [5]; subsequently, in 1960, the transformation took place into a joint-stock company, with the new name SEFAC, an acronym for Società Exerciche Fabbriche Automobili e Corse. Of this name there was also an unofficial transposition carried out by enthusiasts, who read “SEFAC” as “Always Enzo Ferrari Also Changing”.